Thursday, July 17, 2008

I am going to be busy over the weekend attending a conference here in Philly. I will be out to dinner with grad school colleagues and all that, so I shan't be posting for a few days. Tonight was the plenary session followed by a reception. The food was really heavy on the meat and cheese (surprise, surprise) so I spent my time drinking beer and eating garnishes. To be fair, they did have some very mediocre grilled tofu cubes and some fruit skewers. It's always hilarious to get a group of historians together--picture a bunch of ill-dressed, socially awkward, introverted nerds trying to socialize.

Musicologists are up there on the awkward scale. both of my weirdest teachers were musicologists- one on norwegian folk music and one on renaissance music who also had a short man complex. They go from awkward to invading personal space and back again.

However, our next door neighbor is a neurology fellow at Penn and his lab colleagues might beat everyone.

If you get a chance, you have to check out Govinda's Gourmet to Go on the corner of South Street and Broad (not too far from Rittenhouse) for a vegan chicken cheesesteak (on a sesame roll, and order it with vegan cheese). They also have the famous Vegan Treats cakes, cookies and brownies.

I hang out with the physicist/mathematician crowd here in Salt Lake City.

The joke goes, "When can you tell if a mathematician is an extrovert?"Answer, "He looks at your shoes when he talks to you" (as opposed to his own shoes..). It's a better joke in person, believe me. It gets them laughing!

Love your blog. Very inspirational. I lived in Philly back in the 80's. Say hi to Ben for me!